We might define your story’s tone as its attitude. More than that, it’s a guide for audiences to help them determine their own attitudes while engaging with your story. Tone tells audiences how to experience the events unfolding on the page. As such, you have to set your story’s tone right from the beginning. Is […]
January 23, 2017 by 112 Comments How to Become a Writer6 Bits of Common Writing Advice You’re Misusing
Recently, I found myself reminiscing about some of the early books on writing advice that transformed and molded my understanding of storytelling and writing. They opened my eyes, honed my craft, and changed my life. I wouldn’t be the writer I am today without the solid writing advice I’ve received from the writers who have gone […]
May 19, 2016 by 115 Comments Plotting Your NovelThe #1 Tip for How to Write Books Readers Can’t Put Down
As an author, you have the ability to wield great power. But you know what? You’re probably not wielding it. This power is scary. It probably scares you. It definitely scares your readers. But assuming you want to learn how to write books readers can’t put down–that is a most excellent thing. What power am […]
March 31, 2016 by 68 Comments Beginning Your BookAre You Telling the Wrong Story?
Sometimes the story you start out writing is not the story you end up telling. The beginning and the ending are two different stories–and the inevitable result is that one of those is the wrong story. How can you tell when you’ve got two halves that don’t form a single whole? How can identify which […]
December 7, 2015 by 53 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes, Pt. 46: Anticlimactic Endings
Here’s how to write books readers will love–and yet still end up hating you for. It’s easy. All you have to do is divebomb out of your brilliance and into anticlimactic endings. On some level, anticlimactic endings are pretty self-explanatory. They’re endings with no bang in the end. They’re endings that evoke a yawn from readers instead […]
October 23, 2015 by 55 Comments CharactersHow to Make Your Hero’s Self-Sacrifice Even More Heartbreaking
I don’t know about you, but I have a major thing for stories that include a hero’s self-sacrifice. In the stories that deeply move or affect me, heroic self-sacrifice is the consistent element. It’s also one that (no surprise) I keep writing about in my own books. On its surface, this is a pretty basic […]
September 4, 2015 by 38 Comments ThemeYour Plot and Theme: Are They a Team?
We all know writing a book is no easy task. The reason it’s ultimately so tricky is that a novel must bring together about a gazillion little working pieces, which the author then has to somehow fit together, so they all start ticking together as a seamless whole. That’s like taking apart a Swiss watch and trying […]
May 20, 2015 by 71 Comments Novel EndingsIf You Don’t Fix This Mistake in Your Story’s Climax, You’ll Hate Yourself Later
The Climax has got to be the best part of your story, right? It’s the maraschino cherry on top of the sundae (that is, of course, if you’re the kind who saves the cherry to eat last). Anyway—the point is you want your story’s Climax to be gripping. You want it to be suspenseful. You […]
April 5, 2015 by 42 Comments Structuring Your NovelWant Readers to Adore Your Book? Learn How to Ace Your Climactic Moment
Your story will contain many important moments. Actually, we could say with accuracy that every moment in your story is important, since any misstep could conceivably jar the whole line of dominoes out of sync. But the moment in your story is the Climactic Moment. This moment is the reason your story is even being told in […]
February 1, 2015 by 41 Comments Most Common Writing MistakesMost Common Writing Mistakes, Pt. 38: Irrelevant Book Endings
Is there anything more fun, more bittersweet, and more challenging than book endings? Arguably, nothing matters more for ensuring reader satisfaction than the ending of a book. As such, few parts of your story are going to be more important to get right. But naturally, the room for error rises in direct proportion to the importance of […]
